Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let there be snark.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

T R E 4 5 O N

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

“But what about the lurkers?”

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Everybody saw this coming.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

You are here: Home / Politics / Violent Insurrection at the Capitol / Investigations Into Violent Extremist Attacks / Monday Evening Open Thread: The (Slow) Mills of Justice

Monday Evening Open Thread: The (Slow) Mills of Justice

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The House select committee investigating the deadly January 6 riot on Capitol Hill announced Monday it is issuing six additional subpoenas to top Trump campaign associates as it continues to seek testimony and documents from key witnesses in the sweeping probe.

With this round of subpoenas, the committee is targeting top individuals from former President Trump’s reelection campaign who the panel says were involved in promoting the lie that the presidential election was stolen…

All six individuals are being asked to supply the committee with documents on November 23, with depositions scheduled spanning the last week of November into mid December.

“In the days before the January 6th attack, the former President’s closest allies and advisors drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes,” Select Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a statement. “The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all.”…

The committee writes in their subpoena letter to Stepien that his role as Trump’s former campaign manager makes him a key player to understanding the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and promote the “Stop the Steal” narrative that rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 echoed.

The committee cites an anonymous interview of a witness with personal knowledge to help back up its claim that Stepien was deeply involved in the messaging behind the campaign’s “Stop the Steal” effort. The committee, in its subpoena letter to him, also cites an internal campaign memo from shortly after the election that demonstrated the Trump campaign knew that the claims about the voting machine company, Dominion Voting Systems, were baseless.

Kerik previously confirmed to CNN that he paid for rooms and suites in Washington, DC, hotels that “served as election-related command centers,” according to the committee. He also worked with Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani “to investigate allegations of voter fraud and promote baseless litigation and ‘Stop the Steal’ efforts,” the committee noted Monday…

CNN previously reported that Eastman wrote an email that blamed Pence for causing the violence at the US Capitol on January 6 with his refusal to block Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results — as the riot was occurring and the then-vice president hid from the mob who had breached the building…

To McCallum, the committee writes that its investigation and public accounts have led the panel to believe that her role as National Executive Assistant to Trump’s reelection campaign made her aware of and involved in the campaign’s efforts to spread false information about voter fraud in the presidential election…

The committee is interested in Flynn, who served as Trump’s first national security adviser and has remained a staunch ally of the former President since being fired in 2017, because he reportedly attended a December 2020 Oval Office meeting “during which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the false message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud.” …

In their subpoena letter to Miller, the committee claims that the former senior adviser used his position of power and prominence within Trump’s campaign orbit to peddle lies about election fraud. The committee cites Miller’s role in coordinating news conferences with Trump and Giuliani to claim that the election was rigged as one of the reasons why he is of interest to their investigation.

The committee also points to Miller’s presence at a meeting on January 5 at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, which became known as a command center for Trump allies specifically focused on how to overturn the November results and pressure then-Vice President Pence to not certify the Electoral College results.

More details at the link.

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    I hadn’t realized Kerik was in with the planners. Interesting that he’d part with his money. I’ve heard him plead poverty more than once over the years.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: no doubt he was hoping for a much bigger payoff/ROI once trumpov was installed as dictator and could more or less openly dispense favors/contracts/etc

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    It's hard to choose. One political party got us Covid relief, improved vaccination rates, added jobs, decreased unemployment, lowered child poverty, passed an infrastructure bill, and took a global lead in climate. The other bans books and attacks Mr. Potato Head and Big Bird.— Duty To Warn ? (@duty2warn) November 8, 2021

  8. 8.

    Quencher

    Any word on how the counterintelligence investigation that was running parallel to the Mueller investigation is progressing?

  9. 9.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Quencher: It’s CI, which means we won’t hear much about it if anything. But my understanding is that it had (publicly at least) been abandoned.

  10. 10.

    Chetan Murthy

    I’m glad y’all believe there’ll be justice.  Really I am.  Maybe you’re even right.  I hear these things take a long time.  Five years now, and nobody’s done actual hard time for stealing an election.  Nobody’s doing hard time for putting little children in concentration camps.

    And Merrick Fucking Garland refuses to enforce subpoenas for acts we saw on live TV.

    Sure.  The mills of justice.  Sure.

  11. 11.

    oldgold

    During the Mueller ‘Investigation’ (ha!). I complained nearly every damn day here about the pace of his investigation.  That Mueller and his cohorts had no appreciation for time in legal investigations.

    Well, to quote Yogi Berra, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

    The mills of an investigation do not have to grind slowly. I have run many that moved quickly. It is particularly important that they do so when the subjects of the investigation are powerful.

    To be honest, at this point they have already frittered away so much time, it is probably too late

  12. 12.

    Cacti

    @Chetan Murthy: And Merrick Fucking Garland refuses to enforce subpoenas for acts we saw on live TV.

    So far, he’s looking like a wrong man at the wrong moment selection. A milquetoast establishment man who doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers.

  13. 13.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Cacti: I’m no longer interested in explanations, only facts.  The Cossacks work for the Czar.  Lincoln fired McClellan; if Biden can’t fire Garland and get a real wartime consigliere in there, that’s on Biden.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Not terrible.  I even have a small headache, and I never get headaches, so that’s not great.  I have been at the computer for an hour and now I am super tired again, so heading back to bed.

    But first, chicken soup.  How smart of me to make homemade chicken and dumplings yesterday when I still felt totally normal!  :-)

  18. 18.

    guachi

    Committee better get moving as there likely won’t be a committee come January 2023.

     

    If I’m an insurrectionist there is zero reason to ever comply. No criminal contempt matter will go anywhere and then Rs will very likely win the election next fall and dissolve the Select Committee rendering any document request moot.

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    FWIW the contempt referral went to the US Attorney’s office for the DC District not to the DOJ.  Generally, the AG does not micromanage what US Attorneys do.  And as noted above, this is the DC guy’s first actual day on the job.​

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Two of my comments went into moderation and then disappeared for no discernible reason.  I am being cancelled!

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I will try this again and see if it disappears a second time:  The contempt referral went to the US Attorney’s office for DC not the DOJ proper.  AGs usually do not micromanage the US Attorneys.  FWIW, as noted above, today was the first full day on the job for the US Attorney in DC.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    the committee is targeting

    Really??

    Getting information from witnesses and informed parties is “targeting” now??

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: I can see the reason in your argument.  Heck, you might be right.  But we’ve been waiting five years for the mills of justice, and seen precious little product.  And of course, the mere fact that a contempt-of-Congress indictment could be politically sensitive, is in itself evidence of the parlous state of our Republic: the man committed the crime on TV, FFS.

    But whatever: I agree with you at the top-level: they [Dems in ever position to -do- something] are all, all, all handling these things with kid gloves.

  32. 32.

    Ramalama

    @Chetan Murthy: I’m there with ya. Feeling the sting, still, from the Obamar admin not doing a dang thing against the lying liars in the banking industry.

    In Canada they use the term ‘fraudsters’ which is really cute.

  33. 33.

    Kim Walker

    In Canada, “they” talk a lot about many things, but the business model is, and always has been, ripping people off. That is the status quo in the banking industry, and their friends and partners in the pay-day loan, numbered corporations and off-shore money industry.

  34. 34.

    prostratedragon

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Too long for a rotating tag, so could you please shout this at regular intervals? I know it has been mentioned here and elsewhere that the process begins at the US Attorney and not the central Department, but it seems to need repeating.

  35. 35.

    MikefromArlington

    They need to go straight at the Kocks and Devos. Cut the head off the snake. They are behind this, parents going ape shit at parent teacher conferences , the tea party asto turfing.

  36. 36.

    daveNYC

    There is a bit of a deadline for moving on this, if the Democrats lose the House then any subpoenas will be nixxed and I wouldn’t be surprised if that ends up mooting any contempt charges.

  37. 37.

    Chris Johnson

    @raven: That or it’s one dude putting in a really long shift. Just nym after nym hammering the same talking points.

  38. 38.

    Kosh III

    Big woo.  The cultists will ignore the subpoena and the D’s will cave as always.

    Pelosi could have sent the Sgt at Arms of the House to arrest the frakers but they are too chicken shift to  do it.

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